You can lock or unlock fiscal periods for Sage 300 programs that process transactions.
- Locking or unlocking a fiscal period affects processing only after you save the fiscal calendar.
Validation occurs when dates are entered in transactions, so if users are processing transactions while you are editing the fiscal calendar, those users may not receive any warning about locked fiscal periods, and may be able to post transactions to periods you are trying to lock.
For this reason, we strongly recommend that you ensure nobody else is using the system while you edit the fiscal calendar and lock or unlock fiscal periods.
- Using the Locked Fiscal Period field on the Company Profile screen, you can specify how the system behaves if a user enters or posts a transaction to a locked fiscal period. For more information, see Company Profile Screen.
Recommended Order in Which to Lock Programs
Locking a fiscal period for a program affects the entry and posting of transactions only within that program. For this reason, we recommend that you lock periods for programs that generate transactions for other programs before you lock the programs that receive the transactions:
- Lock a fiscal period for Bank Services, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable at the same time, before you lock the period for General Ledger.
Note: When you lock a period for Bank Services, you are prompted to lock Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and US and Canadian Payroll, if they are not already locked. However, unlocking a period for Bank Services does not automatically unlock any other programs.
- Lock a fiscal period for Order Entry, Purchase Orders, Inventory Control, and Project and Job Costing before you lock the period for Bank Services, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable.
Considerations for Specific Programs
For some programs, there are special considerations to keep in mind when locking a fiscal period:
- General Ledger. Before locking a fiscal period for General Ledger, make sure you generate all outstanding G/L batches and post them in General Ledger. Otherwise, the transactions will be placed in an error batch when you try to post them in General Ledger.
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Bank Services. If the Locked Fiscal Period field on the Company Profile screen is set to Error, locking a period for Bank Services affects other programs as follows:
- Accounts Receivable. You cannot add receipts or print refund checks for a period that is locked for Bank Services.
- Accounts Payable. You cannot print checks for a period that is locked for Bank Services.
- US or Canadian Payroll. You cannot print checks for a period that is locked for Bank Services.
- Inventory Control or "standalone" Purchase Orders. Locking a fiscal period for these programs does not prevent Day End Processing from creating transactions for another ledger or from updating contracts in Project and Job Costing. However, if the period is locked for the other ledger (say, Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable), you may not be able to post the transactions in that ledger.
- Project and Job Costing. Locking a fiscal period for Project and Job Costing does not prevent other Sage 300 programs from updating information in the Contract Maintenance screen. For example, posting a job-related invoice in Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable updates the associated values for the contracts, projects, categories, and resources in Project and Job Costing.
An exception can occur when users post material usage or material return transactions to a period that is later locked for Project and Job Costing. If the period is locked before running Day End Processing, Day End Processing will not process these transactions, and will generate an error. To clear the error, you must unlock the period for Project and Job Costing, and then run Day End Processing. (Material allocation transactions do not produce this error.)